XMM-Newton and Swift observations of the Seyfert 1 AGN NGC 5940

Probing the physics of the accretion flow around active galactic nuclei (AGN) is crucial to understanding their emission mechanisms as well as being able to constrain the geometrical and variability properties of the different regions around them. The soft X-ray excess – usually observed below ∼2 keV in excess of the dominant X-ray powerlaw continuum – is one prominent feature that is commonly seen in type 1 Seyfert AGN and therefore readily provides a useful diagnostic of the accretion flow mechanism around these systems. NGC 5940 is a Seyfert 1 AGN which reveals strong, prominent soft X-ray excess below ∼2 keV as seen in both its XMM-Newton and Swift observations. Model fit to the data revealed that this feature could be equally well explained by the ionised partial covering, the thermal Comptonisation and the blurred reflection models. Although the other models cannot be decisively ruled out with the data at hand, the lack of significant broad iron Kα as well as any significant emission/absorption line features in the reflection grating spectrometer (RGS) data tend to favour the thermal Comptonisation origin for the soft X-ray excess in NGC 5940.